Grover, Edwin Osgood
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Grover, Edwin Osgood
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Edwin Osgood Grover (1870-1965) was a professor of books at Rollins College and a civil rights advocate who worked to improve race relations around Winter Park, Florida.
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Edwin Osgood Grover (1870-1965) was an editor, educator, and philanthropist in the Winter Park area. Grover was born in Mantorville, Minnesota. He went to school at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1884. He went on to graduate school at Harvard but did not complete his studies. He worked at Ginn and Co. as a textbook representative. Later he was promoted to assistant editor, and then in 1906 he formed his own publishing company.
Hamilton Holt hired Grover in 1929 as Professor of Books at Rollins. Once in Winter Park, Grover helped Zora Neale Hurston publish her first book. He also helped to secure funding for a Black day nursery for working mothers in Winter Park; his wife Mertie Grover ran the nursery. In 1936 when Mertie died, he asked for no flowers but rather donations to a children’s library on the West Side of Winter Park (known as Hannibal Square), the historically Black side of town.
In 1937 Hannibal Squares Associates was incorporated, and Edwin became the President for more than 10 years. He raised over $20,000 for the West Side Community Center, $2,500 for Hannibal Square Memorial Library, and $13,000 toward the Mary DePugh nursing home for local Black residents. He also served as a trustee for Bethune Cookman College, a historically black college in nearby Daytona Beach.
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June 4, 1870
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November 8, 1965
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Hannibal Squares associates,
Bethune Cookman College,
Mead Botanical Garden President
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Zora Neale Hurston, Hamilton Holt
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Ginn and Co., Rollins College
Position: 1626 (48 views)
